Chair’s Message: Winning by not losing, and our upcoming Seattle City Council Position 8 Showdown in the Wild West

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Winning by not losing

At the national level we are an opposition party, and will be for the next 3 years and 10 months. So we won’t be able to achieve any of the things we’d like to. At the national level, we need to put our positive agenda for the nation on hold while we fight the rightwing extremists who have taken over our government using dark money from oligarchs who now believe the end of democracy is within their grasp. But, just as we did yesterday, we will prove them wrong.

Celebrating our victories

While I’m extremely confident we’ll win in the end, we’re going to lose many fights in the coming years. So many that we’ll get good at losing (like Trump’s nominees). But sometimes, on the most important fights – like saving the ACA – we will win. And when we do it’s important that we celebrate our victories so that we can recharge and inspire each other to continue the fight. That’s what we did last night at Dakota Place Park, where we gathered and celebrated yesterday’s victory over the Republican attack on our health care.

The next fight we’ll win if we continue to stand up and stick together: tax reform

The republican leadership had two major goals for this Congress: repeal the ACA and reform the tax code. Both are designed to give huge tax breaks to the wealthy oligarchs who fund the Republican Party, at the expense of the poor, the middle class, and democracy itself. The Republicans chose to use a budgetary procedure called reconciliation to pass their draconian agenda, because budget reconciliation allows them to avoid the possibility of a Democratic filibuster in the Senate. And they chose to repeal the ACA first because the budget resolution for the current fiscal year dictates that any reconciliation measure must reduce the deficit, which the Republican ACA repeal was designed to do. Republicans then could draft a new budget resolution for the upcoming fiscal year with easier deficit targets, allowing for more aggressive tax cuts. Yesterday they saw their plans go up in flames. Any tax cuts for the super wealthy will now have to be smaller than they would if the measure had passed. And the political challenges the Republicans faced with the ACA repeal aren’t going away any time soon. They have to deal not only with an American electorate that is against them, but with extremist factions within their own party that demand ideological purity that moderates can’t stomach. On this fight, just as with the repeal fight we just won, if we stand up and stick together, we will win.

Coming up in April: Seattle City Council Position 8 Showdown in the Wild West

There are now 10 declared candidates for Seattle City Council Position 8. How do you choose from such a large field. We know the approach the Republicans took last year ended in national disaster. We also know that a candidate forum in which 10 candidates get equal time isn’t necessarily effective in leading to a decision. So we’re trying something different: 

After brief introductory comments from each of the candidates they’ll each draw a question at random and answer it, and after each has had a chance at answering one of our questions we’re going to let you choose which candidates you want to hear more from through a process of elimination.  Eight of the ten candidates have enthusiastically said they’ll be there. One has said maybe, and one has yet to RSVP.

Note: If you have a question you’d like to hear the candidates answer please submit it to Chris Porter at wsdccm@34dems.org.

 At the end of the evening we’ll endorse one (or more) of the candidates. We want it to be fun, interesting, informative and valuable for our members and for the candidates alike. Hope to see you there!

A note about voting: according to our bylaws:

“Only members in good standing by the end of the prior month’s meeting may vote, except that any member who had paid dues in the previous calendar year may vote if the membership is renewed at or before the meeting where the endorsement takes place.”

If you were a member last year but haven’t renewed yet, you can click here to pay your dues and renew your membership in time for the April meeting. If you weren’t a member by the end of the last meeting you won’t be eligible to vote at the April meeting but can join now to be eligible to vote at our big May endorsements meeting.

http://www.34dems.org/contribute/

 In solidarity,

David Ginsberg

Chair, 34th District Democrats